Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early medieval philosopher and theologian, Augustine of Hippo's work, The Confessions. It focuses specifically on his discussion in book 10 of the temptations involved in the "concupiscence of the eyes", namely our tendency to take delight or interest in the things that we see with this sense, and the drive of curiosity, the desire to know things that are...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early medieval philosopher and theologian, Augustine of Hippo's work, The Confessions. It focuses specifically on his discussion of the temptations caused by the "concupiscence of the flesh" discussed in book 10, which Augustine says that he still has to struggle with to some degree even after his full conversion to Christianity. To support my ongoing work...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early medieval philosopher and theologian, Augustine of Hippo's work, The Confessions. It focuses specifically on his discussion of the childhood, adulthood, and final days of his mother Monica in book 9 of the work. She prayer for Augustine throughout his life, and got to see him eventually convert to Christianity and join the church. Her own life was mar...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early medieval philosopher and theologian, Augustine of Hippo's work, The Confessions. It focuses specifically on his discussion of his friend Alypius in book 8, who was from Augustine's home town of Thagaste, attended Augustine's lectures, where he heard Augustine touch upon a moral failing of his, namely his strong interest in the circus spectacles. Alyp...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' four Letters To A German Friend (anthologized in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays) Specifically it examines the fourth and final letter, which looks at the importance of attending to the demands of justice but also human happiness when considering what one owes to one's country, and whe...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' four Letters To A German Friend (anthologized in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays) Specifically it examines the third letter, which elaborates the theme of the meaning of Europe, a matter where fascists and nationalists like the Nazis view matters one way and other Europeans view matter...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' four Letters To A German Friend (anthologized in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays) Specifically it examines the second letter, which builds upon and expands themes from the first letter, specifically holding one's country to standards. This is connected with a refusal to subordinate or...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosopher, novelist, and essayist Albert Camus' four Letters To A German Friend (anthologized in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays) Specifically it examines the first letter, which elaborates the theme of love for one's country. He makes a distinction between two different conceptions of love for one's country, one which subordinates...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher and essayist David Hume's essay "The Skeptic", found in his Essays Moral, Political, and Literary, the first of his four essays that bear names of members of philosophical schools, about which he tells us: "The intention . . . is not so much to explain accurately the sentiments of the ancient sects of philosophy, as to deliver the...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher and essayist David Hume's essay "The Platonist", found in his Essays Moral, Political, and Literary, the first of his four essays that bear names of members of philosophical schools, about which he tells us: "The intention . . . is not so much to explain accurately the sentiments of the ancient sects of philosophy, as to deliver th...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher and essayist David Hume's essay "The Stoic", found in his Essays Moral, Political, and Literary, the first of his four essays that bear names of members of philosophical schools, about which he tells us: "The intention . . . is not so much to explain accurately the sentiments of the ancient sects of philosophy, as to deliver the se...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher and essayist David Hume's essay "The Epicurean", found in his Essays Moral, Political, and Literary, the first of his four essays that bear names of members of philosophical schools, about which he tells us: "The intention . . . is not so much to explain accurately the sentiments of the ancient sects of philosophy, as to deliver th...

This lecture discusses Plato's work, The Euthyphro. In that work, Socrates is headed to the court, facing trial on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. He gets into a discussion with Euthyphro about the nature of piety and related matters. Here, we look at some of the features of the dramatic situation setting up the dialogue outside of the law court, where Socrates is about to defend hims...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on how we ought to deal with our own failings, mistakes, errors, and sins (hamartia), something that we will experience fairly frequently. He maintains that we ought to look at ourselves like those who are suffering from...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on emotional responses that he takes as being important signs of progress towards virtue, if these emotional responses are directed towards the right objects. These are "emulation" (zēlos) and admiration (thaumazein), di...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of the emotions that a person feels, which they can use as an index for determining whether they are indeed making progress. Plutarch suggests that we ought to look at our past emotional responses and c...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his short but rich discussion about how we can tell whether or not we are making progress by looking at the contents of our dreams (or at what we perceive when we are ill). If we have not genuinely succeeded in making...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of a yearning for philosophy, not typical academic philosophy but actual philosophy as a way of life, as an index for whether a person is making moral progress or not. He examines what this looks like i...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his discussions bearing upon something he takes as an important index for our development, namely the changes in our discourse. He looks a number of different aspects of this, one of which is the topics that we focus...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his discussion of why it is important not to give ourselves a pass or make excuses when we fail in minor ways, if the goal is to make moral progress. He develops an analogy to building projects. If the goal is to buil...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on how we can use consistency as a sign and also a means of making moral progress. He argues that we are either making progress or falling back, so this means that we need to keep choosing to commit to a life of virtue,...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the ancient Middle Platonist philosopher and biographer Plutarch's essay On Awareness Of Progress In Virtue This episode focuses specifically on his criticisms of the standard Stoic position on virtue and vice, which is that every person is either virtuous or vicious, with no middle state. The Stoics (with some exceptions like Epictetus) also seem to think tha...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early modern philosopher Francis Bacon's work Novum Organum, specifically the section in book 1 covering the "four idols of the human mind" This episode focuses specifically on his description of the fourth type of idol, those of the theater, which derive from either entire philosophical systems, which Bacon likens to fictions and plays, or from perverted...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early modern philosopher Francis Bacon's work Novum Organum, specifically the section in book 1 covering the "four idols of the human mind" This episode focuses specifically on his description of the third type of idol, those of the market, which derive from our use of language to communicate our thoughts and to engage in inquiry. Bacon examines what disti...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the early modern philosopher Francis Bacon's work Novum Organum, specifically the section in book 1 covering the "four idols of the human mind" This episode focuses specifically on his description of the second type of idol, those of the cave or den, which have to do with human individuals. Bacon examines what distinctive sorts of errors of these types we can...